Standing, Stopping and Parking in the US

[Wilson Gray]

Sigh! I've failed to make myself clear yet. again. I should have said
that NO THROUGH STREET meant "DEAD END" in the City of St. Louis,
ca.1940-60, when I was growing up there. The term DEAD END was not
used. I learned the term through reading the comics.

In "The Lou," if you were in a strange neighborhood and drove down a
dead-end street in error, at the end of that street there would be a
yellow, diamond-shaped sign with the words, NO THROUGH STREET, and
you'd have to turn around and drive back the same way you came. If
there was a way off that street, even though it left you in the same
neighborhood, there was no signage. I haven't lived there since 1962.
So, I have no clue as to current traffic signage or how it's
interpreted.

-Wilson Gray

On 5/24/05, David Bowie <db.list at pmpkn.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Standing, Stopping and Parking in the US
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From:    Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
>
> > I've always enjoyed this pair:
>
> > Saint Louis:   NO THROUGH STREET
>
> > Los Angeles: STREET NOT THROUGH
>
> > They both mean "DEAD END," of course.
>
> Actually, *technically*, NO THROUGH STREET and DEAD END mean different
> things. (DE means the street you're on doesn't have any turns off of it
> beyond the sign; NTS means there may be turns off the street you're on,
> but they won't lead out of the neighborhood you're in.) This doesn't
> mean that they're always used like the book says, of course (and yes,
> there really *is* a book--one of the surprises of being married to a
> traffic engineer is that you discover such things).
>
> And yes, the book (the "MUTCD", for "Manual on uniform traffic control
> devices", available at http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/, along with related
> publications) also defines, with mind-numbing detail, standing,
> stopping, and parking.
>
> <snip>
>
> --
> David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
>      Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>      house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>      chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>


--
-Wilson Gray